No. 1. — Reports on the Scientific Results of the Expedition to the 

 Eastern Tropical Pacific^ in charge of Alexander Agassiz, 

 by the U. S. Fish Commission Steamer " Albatross,'''' from 

 October, 1904, to March, 1905, Lieutenant Commander 

 L. M. Garrett, U. S. N., Commanding. 



XII. 



The Reptiles of Easter Island. 



By Samuel Garman. 



To give an approximately complete idea of the Herpetology of Easter 

 Island it is necessary to consider and to introduce provisionally into our 

 list of species a number of marine tortoises and a sea serpent, which 

 range throughout Polynesia and the tropical and the temperate portions 

 of the Pacific and the Indian oceans, but which have not yet been 

 taken or known directly from the island by the scientist. The snake 

 has the better claim to attention, having been secured a short distance 

 from the shores and positively determined. The tortoises, of which 

 our knowledge depends wholly upon tradition or other evidence of the 

 natives, cannot be satisfactorily identified, and if they might be, they 

 would add little or nothing in answer to questions relating to the origin 

 or the evolution of the fauna. This leaves as the main dependence in 

 this study two species of small lizards, a third and larger one, the exist- 

 ence of which is asserted by the islanders, having, if it exists, escaped 

 capture. From the material gathered it appears that these lizards were 

 not originally derived from the nearer islands to the westward, in the 

 direction of Samoa and the Fijis, but from the Hawaiian Islands to 

 the far northwestward. We can go no farther until possessed of more 

 material. That the Hawaiian Islands and Easter Island may both 

 have obtained the species from some other locality is possible, but of 

 that we have as yet no proof, while it can be said that the affinities of the 

 species from the two localities are markedly direct. Drifting from one 

 to the other being put aside as improbable, Hawaiian lizards may have 



